[The cost of HIV infection: method and results]

The project concerned hospital costs: in-patient, out-patient, clinics and home-hospitalisation. It included asymptomatic HIV-infected individuals as well as AIDS patients. The annual cost per patient was calculated according to the various types of disease management described by involved physicians. Standard annual per-patient cost was between 2,470 and 338,000 according to the severity of the disease (four stages of severity have been defined). The standard annual cost per HIV-infected patient with Kaposi's sarcoma was in the range FF 89,000 to FF 131,000. The standard cost of surveillance for an asymptomatic HIV-infected pregnant woman was just over FF 3,400. The standard annual cost per child born to an asymptomatic HIV-infected mother was FF 12,300 for a child enrolled in an epidemiology protocol; it was FF 42,000 or FF 196,000 for a child with AIDS according to the severity of the illness. Furthermore, the study highlights the heterogeneity of medical practice, greater in the earlier stages of the disease, and the incidence of difference forms of disease management upon costs.